We do better under Democrats!

A friend sent along this chart he worked up from statistics on growth in family income under Republican Presidents and under Democratic Presidents. The top 5 percent seem to do about the same under both, though even they do a bit better under Democrats. The rest of us are a lot better off under Democrats.
Source: Alan S. Blinder’s “Economic View” (NY Times, 8/31/08), derived from Census Bureau data by Larry M. Bartels, author of Unequal Democracy. Two major points emerge: Over these 58 years, (1) Income inequality has widened substantially under Republican Presidents, and (2) Under Democratic Presidents, all groups have done better, on average, than any group has done under Republican Presidents. The implications of the effectiveness of each party’s economic policies should be clear to most, though surprising to many. Similarly, differences emerge in annual real GNP growth per capita (1948-2007) of 1.64% under Republican presidents vs. 2.78% under Democratic presidents.